It is known in the prior art to provide a beach towel with weights to prevent the wind from undesirably disturbing the towel. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,737 issued Jan. 4, 1966 to Rote for BEACH AND PICNIC BLANKET. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,906 issued Apr. 7, 1987 to Roberts for BEACH BLANKET WITH SAND POCKETS.
Rote shows a pocket stitched at the edges to each corner of the blanket and opening toward the center of the blanket. According to one embodiment, sand is placed in the pockets to hold the blanket in place. According to another embodiment Rote provides weighted bags (containing sand, rocks, dirt, or the like) releasably secured in the corner pockets by visible snap fasteners, buttons, or the like, indicated at 13 in the Rote patent.
Roberts also shows a triangular pocket to hold sand at each corner of a beach blanket, but each of Roberts' pockets opens outwardly toward the corresponding corner of the blanket and is stitched to the blanket only along its inner edge. The open corners of the pockets are releasably closed by drawstrings fastened to the corner tips of the layers of the pockets.
Rote and Roberts both show closing means for releasably closing pockets that contain weights to keep a beach or picnic blanket in place. The closing means in both patents are highly visible and there is no suggestion in either patent of using the pockets to contain anything other than weights or of structuring the pockets with concealed openings, whereby the pockets may effectively serve as a hidden receptacle for valuables, as well as housing weights to stabilize the towel.